#5 in 2016: How to lose a $175,000 domain name in a UDRP

Company seemingly targets bank with domain name and loses it in a UDRP. You buy a domain name for $175,000. It’s a geo domain name, but it also matches a famous trademark. Do you a) make sure to only use it in the geo sense or b) antagonize the trademark holder? The company that bought Halifax.com did the latter, and it cost them the domain name in a UDRP. This story was the fifth most-read on Domain Name Wire this year . After buying the domain name, Diversity Network registered similar domain names that seemed to target Bank of Scotland’s financial services company Halifax. It also created a financial site on Halifax.com. According to the UDRP, Diversity Network also reached out to Bank of Scotland and told them about lots of misdirected email it received, including for lost logins. It offered to sell the domain name to the bank. This was enough for the UDRP panel to ord...